We have no choice now but to all work in unison to make sure that love and tolerance prevails over hate and intolerance in America. Hate will take us down, Love will open up a new and dynamic future for our country.
Seeing our President Obama become the pin up boy for hate du jour ("all Muslims are bad and Obama is a Muslim")..... and take blow after blow of hate filled intolerant attacks in poorly disguised racist rants and put downs.... makes me sick and sad. Sick in my stomach that this is a growing trend in America. Sad that so many are sucked into this vortex of hate.
My message to all Kosaks is that responding strongly to this mob hate, being cultivated and promulgated by right wing TV and Radio personalities and enabled by Republican politician, must be seen as our most important task over the next few years. We don't all agree on how well Obama is doing in moving forward the progressive agenda. But most of us agree he is a good man. And he is being slowly hacked to pieces by shards of hate, slash by slash, blow by blow, day by day. And this is very bad for America and our future.
Obama is a black man. We were all surprised and elated that he broke thru the barriers and was actually elected. But the blow back is what we are now experiencing. We need to first understand that " Muslim, socialist, Nazi, communist, un-American, "not born here", Kenyan, etc" all are codes for "black". No, not every single time, by every single hate monger. Yes, some actually know about the Islamic faith and have strong personal feeling against it. Yes, some are emotionally wrought over the deficits and taxes. But the hatred of blacks, black power and black culture and the fear of this.....this is the power and source of the hate that is filling America.
And we must call it out and stop it in its tracks. All those who see this for what it is....those of us sitting at computers from all walks of life...those in the MSM (those that are able to rise above the ratings chase)...politicians like Alan Grayson...we must call it out for what it is. Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, are racists. Yes they will speak in platitudes about MLK and civil rights because saying what they really feel is politically still too dangerous (they might lose some of those that don't really get the underlying hate and ugliness).... but they are fanning the flames of hate and intolerance...and they are reaping the ugly power that mob in-citation offers to those that would succumb to and empower the primal hate of "others"... and for racist white Americans...."others" are black and dark skinned, like our President.
When Obama was running for President, I knew he faced an almost insurmountable challenge as a black American. I roughly figured at least 40% of Republicans had deeply held racist and intolerant beliefs and that the figure was probably at least 20% amongst Independents and 10% amongst Dems. Together I figured this amounted to at least around 40% of the voting public. That meant that Obama would have to garner almost everyone that was tolerant, non racist, regardless of their various other political views, to have any chance of winning the Presidency. This was just my simple, rough math. I thought it all but impossible. But he did it. God Bless him and God Bless us. The whole world was "shocked and awed" at this amazing step forward by America.
But we are now seeing this all slip back into a darker reality... a hate filled blow back to America's golden moment of stepping out from our historical roots which had almost always been heavily influenced by a segment of our society still steeped in intolerance and racism.
My call out is:
Let's get behind our President and the beliefs that we know are right and fight with all our might to expose this growing monster of racism in America.
If we can do this.... if we can together fight against the hate and intolerance against our President in all its direct and indirect methods....then America has a chance for a beautiful future...for our children and their children. If we can work together toward this as our primary endeavor.... I have no doubt that we can mend our differences on tax policy, health care structure, peaceful rather than military responses to world affairs, true equality for women, marriage for gays, protection of our world environment and other important political and social agendas.... and move forward on these fronts as well.
But if we do not work as a team, as a block to push back the growing hate and intolerance.... if while we focus on battling over these many other very important issues.... we allow the level of hate and intolerance to grow and grow....and become more emboldened in mainstream America....if we allow the Limbaughs, McConnels, Roves, Becks, O'Reilys, Palins to continue spewing and inciting hatred and bigotry without being called out for it over and over again, by all of us....if we do not speak with great combined strength for a tolerant, loving, all embracing America, free of racism and religious bigotry, if we fail to call them out for the racism they espouse....we may still win some "battles" on important social and political issues....But we will lose the war of the Heart, the Hear of America, perhaps forever.
This is what I fear.